CLOSURE OF UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES ASIA

CLOSURE OF UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES ASIA:

(Assistance to affected students): 11.

Mdm Halimah Yacob asked the Minister for Education (a) whether the Ministry was informed in advance of the closure of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and, if so, whether more could have been done to prepare the affected students; and (b) what assistance has the Ministry extended to the affected students in securing fair compensation from UNSW for their losses and in securing places in local institutions.

12.

Mdm Cynthia Phua asked the Minister for Education , in the light of the exit by University of New South Wales (UNSW) from Singapore, (a) what are the safeguards the Government can offer to students enrolled with foreign institutions here from being left in the lurch; (b) whether these institutions are required to post any financial bond with the Ministry to ensure their specific performance; and (c) whether the Ministry is aware of any student taking legal action against UNSW for breach of contract.

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13.

Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Education in view of the recent closure of UNSW's campus in Singapore (a) how many schools have closed in the past five years due to financial problems; and (b) what will the Ministry do to ensure that private schools/education institutions have feasible business plans and sufficiently robust financial positions to enable them to meet their education obligations to their students.

14.

Dr Lily Neo asked the Minister for Education when will his Ministry set up a national accreditation body to assess and monitor the quality of private schools in Singapore.

15.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad asked the Minister for Education whether his Ministry will consider providing tertiary fee subsidies similar to those provided for students at local universities, to those pursuing their degrees at accredited privately-run tertiary institutions as well as those run in collaboration with foreign universities.

The Minister of State for Education (Mr Gan Kim Yong) (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, may I have your permission to take Question Nos. 11 to 15 together?

Mr Speaker: Please do.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Sir, I would like to thank Mdm Halimah Yacob, Mdm Cynthia Phua, Dr Lily Neo, Mr Christopher de Souza and Mr Zaqy Mohamad for their Questions on the closure of UNSW Asia and related issues regarding private educational institutions.

Earlier on, the Minister for Trade and Industry had provided a comprehensive reply on negotiations between MTI and UNSW. MOE was informed of UNSW's decision to close its Singapore campus two days before the public announcement

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on 23rd May 2007. As soon as we learnt of UNSW's decision, our top priority was to help the affected students. MOE worked with EDB, the three Singapore universities and several private education providers to provide options for affected students who wished to remain in Singapore to pursue their degree programmes.

The three Singapore universities - NUS, NTU and SMU - and the private education providers set up a one-stop centre at the UNSW Asia campus to facilitate enquiries and applications by the affected students.

Taking into account the suddenness of the situation and to help the affected students, the three Singapore universities extended their deadline for application for this academic year to 4th June. They received applications from 231 UNSW Asia students and considered these applications case by case on the basis of merit. Twenty-four UNSW Asia students received offers from the universities.

These efforts to assist students provided them with additional options, besides the offer by UNSW of places in its Sydney campus. To date, we understand that 116 out of the 143 UNSW Asia students from the March 2007 intake have opted to continue their course of study at UNSW in Sydney.

MOE does not have information on students taking legal action against UNSW. These are decisions to be taken by the students themselves.

Turning to the question on safeguards for students raised by Mdm Cynthia Phua, private education providers which enrol foreign students are required to attain CASETrust for Education certification. CASETrust-certified private schools are required to protect students' fees by purchasing tuition fee insurance. Alternatively, these schools may set up an

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Escrow account into which students pay tuition fees in advance, which the bank will then disburse in instalments. In the event of school closure, unused tuition fees will be returned to the students.

Foreign university branch campuses, such as UNSW Asia, are not required to be CASETrust-certified because they are reputable institutions with university status accorded by their home countries. It is also common practice for such institutions to collect tuition fees on a semestral basis. This makes CASETrust's student protection measures unnecessary. In the case of UNSW Asia, it fully refunded the tuition fees paid by its first batch of students for the period after its closure. It also refunded the deposits paid by students who had not begun their programmes of study.

From MOE's records, 18 private commercial schools have closed in the past five years, for a variety of reasons. In many cases, the schools stopped taking in new students and only closed after seeing through their final intakes. As such, students were not adversely affected. In other cases, the schools sought alternative programmes for their students to transfer to.

Mr de Souza asked if the Government can ensure that private education institutions have sound business plans. It is not possible for the Government to ensure the success or financial robustness of any business venture. In the event of private school closures, our priority is to assist the affected students and minimise disruption to their studies.

Going forward, as I announced at the last Committee of Supply in March 2007, MOE is looking at the feasibility of introducing a new regulatory framework for the private education sector that would, amongst other possible changes, enhance student protection measures.

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Mr Zaqy Mohamad asked about providing fee subsidies to students in privately-run tertiary institutions to pursue degree programmes. MOE has no plans to do so at this point in time.

Dr Lily Neo: Sir, may I ask MOS whether the closure of the private school here has dented Singapore's reputation as an education hub? Are there measures in place to regain lost ground? What more can MOE do to better protect the interests of foreign students studying here? And, lastly, given the inadequacy of the present accreditation scheme, is it not urgent for MOE to be proactive and to develop its new scheme?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Mr Speaker, as I mentioned earlier, we are looking into the feasibility of introducing an accreditation system and a new regulatory framework. But this is a fairly complex issue because today, there are some 1,200 private organisations already operating in Singapore, and for us to regulate them, we will have to do so very carefully. At the moment, the Ministry is consulting the industry to understand the structure of the industry better, to understand the concerns, weaknesses and strengths of the industry and see how we could introduce a system to enhance the protection for students and, at the same time, to also enhance the image and branding of Singapore's education system.

Mdm Cynthia Phua: I just want to ask the Minister of State the question again. How many students were there in the foundation course? We know that there were students in the foundation course. And would MOE recognise these potential graduates in our local universities?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Mr Speaker, Sir, with regard to the foundation programme

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that Mdm Cynthia Phua has mentioned, I think these foundation programmes were designed specifically to cater to UNSW programmes and the local universities would have to look at them very carefully. After all, the admission criteria for our local universities are merit-based. They have to ensure that, first and foremost, they are qualified to enter into our local universities' programmes. At the same time, we also have to ensure that they are able to complete their programmes. So I think we will assess each of them on a case-by-case basis, based on our universities' own admission criteria.

Mdm Cynthia Phua: How many are there?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: I do not have the specific numbers with me at the moment.

Mdm Halimah Yacob (Jurong): Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to ask the MOS the following questions. MOE and MTI were informed only two days before the announcement was made. But upon being informed, could the two Ministries have requested that the university defer their communication to the students until an effective proper communication plan had been worked out? Because soon after the announcement was made, there was obviously utter confusion and there was not an effective communication plan. And in that communication plan, had the Ministry also asked the university to also indicate to the students what kind of assistance would be provided from the university's side, in terms of scholarship assistance, as well as on the Ministry's side, what kind of assistance would be extended, in terms of getting places for them in NUS, NTU and SMU? Because the impression given is that there was really no effective communication plan or strategy for the students when the news broke out to them and that had caused utter confusion and anxiety.

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Mr Gan Kim Yong: Mr Speaker, I can understand the Member's concern and the anxiety that she and the students were facing. The decision to close UNSW Asia was made by UNSW themselves and the decision to proceed with the announcement was also made by them. We were informed two days beforehand and, immediately, we swung into action and we gathered our local universities as well as several private education organisations to set up a one-stop shop at the UNSW Asia campus to help facilitate our students who were affected by the closure. I think this was the best way that MOE felt that we could extend a helping help to the students who were faced with this dilemma.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Hong Kah): A question for MOS. He gave me a straight "no" to my Question. I just want to find out what are the considerations made before they arrived at the conclusion. My question was really not so much on the UNSW's context, but more along the lines of the demand for university places in our local universities. As such, would the Ministry consider providing such subsidies as well for students who could not make it to the local universities but could make it to other accredited local privately-run universities like UNISIM, for example? Thirdly, I think to a large extent, now with all these foreign universities coming in, it also gives the students more choices, in terms of the academic courses to attend, by lowering the financial burden of the families rather than exploring overseas opportunities.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Mr Speaker, I think Mr Zaqy Mohamad has another Question, Question No. 28, which is related to the admission and university places for our students. I just want to give a quick response now and we can deal with the specifics later on in that specific Question. Looking at it from the university's point of view, it is important for us to bear in mind that some private

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education institutions can be quite expensive. It is therefore difficult for us to extend subsidies to all private education organisations. We have provided significant subsidies through our three main universities - SMU, NTU and NUS. I think our focus now is to continue to build these universities and help our students do well in these universities.

Mr Sin Boon Ann (Tampines): The MOS said earlier that he is consulting the industry, comprising about more than 1,000 private education providers, to see how to regulate this industry. I get the impression from the MOS that the Government is now looking at regulating this industry. Surely, the question asked is whether this should have been done earlier before the closure came about, and we are left scrambling to look at what further regulations we have got to put in place.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: As I mentioned during the COS earlier this year, the private education landscape has changed over the years. In the earlier years, most of the private education organisations in Singapore worked very much as an agent that offers distance learning. Not many of them were here conducting lessons and having classroom facilities for our students. But over the years, this has changed and the sector has evolved and we have over the years also introduced several measures by the different agencies to improve the quality and regulation of this industry, including, for example, CASETrust which is one such measure.

Moving forward, in line with our strategy to develop Singapore into an education hub, MOE is taking a more fundamental relook at this regulation framework and see how best we can support this strategy. It has to be a balance between regulation and promotion, as we want to regulate and

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ensure compliance with the law. At the same time, we want to make sure that we do not stifle up and coming new merging private education organisations that are trying to make a mark. So it is a balance between regulation as well as promotion. That is why we have to track very carefully, consult widely, understand the industry before we introduce the system.

So, in a nutshell, from MOE's point of view, it is more important for us to have a good solution rather than a quick solution.